Assault Rifle and Elemental DPS

An Elite Dungeon Build

By Nendragon

This is a DPS build submitted by one of our readers, Nendragon using our TSW Guides Build Submission page. Nendragon suggests this build for elite dungeons. He also distinguishes between the “must have” elements of his build and the “can take” elements, giving the user some flexibility to take the core build module and tailor it to their individual tastes. In the Key Features area, Nendragon distinguishes between build choices for dungeons and those for solo PVE play.

Active Abilities

Safety Off – AR builder (*)

Three Round Burst ( or Fire At Will) – AR consumer (*)

Blaze - EL consumer (*)

Molten Earth – EL elite (+)

Arc Flash – EL AE (+)

Confuse - deaggro

Turn The Tables – self heal

(*) – required , (+) – highly recommended

Passive Abilities

Bloodsport - Fists, give Affliction on hit (*)

Extra Bullet – AR, improve builder DPS (*)

Aidelon - EL, make Blaze crit if target afflicted (*)

Salt in the Wound - Fists, additional damage (+)

Elemental Precision – adds +10% on elemental damage (+)

Eagle Eye – adds +10% on AR damage

Criticality - additional chain damage on crits

Key Features

This revolve around very strong Blaze consumer, which will automatically crit due to Bloodsport (targets afflicted) and Aidolon. Core parts of this build (*) cost about 300 AP.

Same build is great for PvE/questing too, only replace Confuse with Anima Shot, and use Fire At Will instead of Three Round Bursts. With Fire at Will (FoW), you have also very strong AE, using Arc as builder and FoW as consumer.

Reasons for some choices:

-SafetyOff has one of highest DPS for builders (especially with ExtraBullet), FAR better than ArcFlash
-Molten Earth is better DPS than Red Mist for bosses (better dmg per cast time = better DPS), and even for soloing (slightly lower DPS there than Mist, but HUGE advantage due to root)
-Salt In The Wounds gives 2-3 times more DPS than Molecular Exploitation (ME probably has CD) … and you already researched it with Bloodsport
- Criticality has nice synergy with Blaze (it triggers off Blaze crits, which are guaranteed with Bloodsport and Aidelon)

Rotation

Safety x3 -> TrB or FaW -> Blaze = rotation, 5.5sec

When off CD use elite Molten Earth, and when needed use deaggro and heal.

Gearing Needs

No specific stat needed for core function, although crit is good for side passive Criticality.
But usually best to gear evenly Penetration, Crit etc

Fist Chaos

A My First 60 Survival Build

Build Notes: Our “My First 60″ builds are targeted for about 60 total points. They represent the initial builds for a player starting the game, but wanting to play a focused role. Thus, inner wheel builds are incomplete builds and NOT intended for mid-game or later play.

We occasionally create builds based on reader request. In this case, the reader was looking for a survival oriented build with a chaos base. The build has not been tested. However, it works from a base similar to our other MF60 survival builds, so it should perform well.

Active Abilities

Passive Abilities

Lick Your Wounds (Fist)

Nurturing Gift (Fist)

Intensity (Chance)

Paradigm Shift (Theory)

Gunsmoke (Shotgun – Control)

Chaos Adept (Theory)

Predator (Feral)

Key Features

This build requires just under 60 total AP to put together. The build uses one builder, Escalation. This is a lower damage builder than some of the other fist/chaos options, but it is does damage to multiple targets. Further, combined with the Intensity passive, escalation is building up the exposed weakened effect, increasing your damage output by as much as 30%. The weakened effect is triggering processes for the Paradigm Shift and Gunsmoke passives, causing your subsequent attacks to hit more often, for more damage respectively.

While escalation is an AOE, this build has been assembled as a single target build. Your chaos finisher, Call for Eris does substantial single target damage as does your fist finisher, Wild at Heart.

This build features two utility abilities. Illusion is there for those situations where a bit more defense would be helpful. Go for the throat is your elite ability, a single target 5-second stun. Right after using Go for the throat, follow up with Paradox, which exploits impair for additional damage.

As with any survival build, this build has a few healing sources built in. Nurture exists to provide some on-demand healing and can help keep a constant heal over time running if rotated frequently. Nurturing Gift increases both the heal and heal duration of of Nurture. Lick Your Wounds keeps a constant heal effect running as your damage output stacks up.

Rotation

This is a very straight forwards build. Consider opening with Go for the Throat and Paradox for a nice 1-2 punch. Follow that up with Wild at Heart (fist resources should recharge out of combat) and you will have put some serious hurt out right at the start of the fight.

Your standard combat rotation is Escalation x5, Call for Eris, Wild at Heart. Rotate in Nurture roughly every full rotation to keep the hot effect running. Use Illusion early in fights against duo’s, giving you a bit more defense until you take out the first target.

Illusion, Go for the Throat and Paradox should be used on recycle. Later on, if you face targets with significant special attacks, save GffT to interrupt those abilities. Always use Paradox immediately after GffT.

Build Consideration

Our general rule of thumb for MF60 builds is:

Get a finisher equipped for each weapon asap (go deep in Primal)

Pickup any cheap passives that synergize with your builders (Gunsmoke and Paradigm Shift)

Go deep in the cell that provides the most remaining used abilities (not really relevant for this build)

Grab remaining abilities based on cheapest to equip

Gear Consideration

Talisman are very important parts of making any build work. Survival builds require talisman from all three factors (high hit point pieces, high damage pieces, and high healing pieces). I would aim for 50% high attack power pieces (all three major’s get you here), 30% high hit point pieces (all three minor’s get you here) and 20% high heal pieces (head piece alone gets you here).

You will probably have enough +hit from the stacking paradigm shift. Look for gear that adds either critical rating and critical power, or gear that adds penetrate. However with most early game gear, focusing on the primary stats (atk, hp, heal) is more important than the glyph secondary stats.

Elite Tanking – Weakened Build

Hammer and Chaos Synergy

This build uses a weakening trigger to synergize a number of damage and mitigation effects. The build has worked well through elite dungeons. It is a relative easy build to put together for those on an AP budget.

Active Abilities

Smash (Hammer) – 1AP

Escalation (Chaos) – 1AP

Razor Shards (Hammer Pit) – 9AP

Call for Eris (Chaos) – 1AP

Stoicism (Turbulence) – 50AP
Reality Fracture (The 4th Wall) – 27 AP

Blowout (Hammer Pit) – 34 AP

Passive Abilities

Turbulence (the Fourth Wall) – 21AP

Forged in Fire (Battering Works) – 50 AP

Below the Belt (Hammer) – 1AP

Intensity (Chaos) – 1AP

Paradigm Shift (Chaos) – 2AP

Inevitability (Building Blocks) – 12AP

Agitator (Turbulence) – 12AP

Key Features

This build uses two builders, since both contribute useful weakened effects. Smash (with Below the Belt passive) provides one of the easiest accesses to the Debilitate debuff (target damage output weakened up to 30%).

The Razor Shards finisher is a hate generator which also boosts the hate level of your next attack. Use Razor Shards and follow it up with either Call for Eris or Smash to significantly boost hate without burning a taunt.

The build also features Stoicism (hate generation with increased mitigation). Stoicism works wonderfully at the opening of a fight and between transition phases to pickup extra agro. While it also provides some survivability, it’s real power is that boost to hate generation.

Blowout extends your health bar and Forged in Fire gives your healer a bit of help for those fights where you take some spike damage.

Rotation

Open with stoicism and razor shards since it should be at full resources outside of fights. From there alternate Smash and Escalate until 5 Resources, use Reality Fracture and Blowout on your first cycle (this is when it’s completely safe for DPS to go all out). From that point on cycle your builders with Razor Shards and Call for Eris (depending on your chaos finisher, Razor Shards may be best used last). After the initial round, use Reality Fracture and Blowout on cooldown, even if firing with less than full resources.

Alternatives

I often rotate the Call for Eris active depending on the situation. Karma provides pbaoe damage with a heal to next target.

This is a standart build for NM. Its tested by many players, but you need to know the boss and adapt your build to the boss. Usually you are expected to bring exposed debuff (30% more dmg)! In exchange 1 dd brings the 30% less dmg debuff. Chaos is the only reasonable source for the exposed debuff and usually you dont see any melee’s in NM.

1. Escalation also offer’s a good aggro generation, aoe aggro, 7,5% less dmg and minor evade chance.
2. Cornerstone is brandish. Use it as often as possible.
3. Crimson Theatre is a filler, usually this is the spot where you fit in abilities you need for a boss. Taunt, Crimson for aoe (use shadowplay instead of brandish support), 3. CD
4. I really like Pulling the Strings because it has some range and gives you a decent hit buff, but of course you could use Karma or Consequence instead for more defense)
”

Rotation

1. Use escalation to build 10 stacks exposed
2. use matador for 5 stacks defense
3. Brandish on CD or on a strong attack from the boss (depends on the fight)
4. Crimson Theatre for additional AOE aggro
5. Illusion and Stoicism as CD’s
6. Pulling string for hit cd and to have a medium range attack.